Agent of Seraphim-Chapter 39: Humanoid Beetle Joined The Fight
Under Karl’s order, the expedition members had split into three teams. Two of them would search for the Worm Statue within the den.
Breaking the Worm Statue would be their priority to return to the outer world, back to their village. They would also do damage control for the upcoming raid two years later.
The village would be in ruins if Raml-d’ah, a giant mutated demon worm towering over 20 meters, were released into the outer world.
The last team, led by Karl, would fight against Raml-d’ah. Naturally, Brand and Ruby were part of this team.
There, Ruby was still casting her spell, while Brand was...
"Where was Brand...?"
Karl looked around, searching for Brand, but he was nowhere to be seen.
—BAM!
The sound was close. Karl stopped searching for Brand and turned toward the source of the noise.
There, he found a dark humanoid figure that had rammed into Raml-d’ah, towering at a height of 20 meters.
"What the... where did this come from?"
The dark humanoid figure had horns growing on both sides of his head. His whole body looked like it was clad in jet-black metal, seamless, as if it were his body all along. His eyes glowed with crimson light.
He looked like a demon reincarnated, radiating an intimidating aura with his sheer presence.
"Beautiful," Karl muttered.
The dark humanoid figure looked at Karl, its eyes shining brighter than before, as if reacting to him.
***
"What the hell was he mumbling about?" Brand was hanging on the mutated demon’s head, his needle-like arm piercing it.
He tried to ignore what he had just heard and focused on the demon in front of him.
Raml-d’ah thrashed its head against the cave linings of the den, trying to shake off the man on its head. It let out a shrieking sound and seemed to be in pain.
Then it extended its body upward and dove deep underground, attempting to drag the figure piercing its head along.
Once underground, it would devour the humanoid figure with minimal effort.
Brand read its intent, withdrew his arm, and jumped off the worm. He landed on the ground and started stomping on it, trying to get his tremorsense working to trace the worm’s movements.
Thus began a tug of war. One tried to drag the other to the ground, while the other needed to read its movement and dodge.
Raml-d’ah was clearly furious, spamming dive attacks as if determined to bring Brand down no matter what.
"It’s being irrational," Seraphine said, attached to Brand’s back, enjoying the swift movement. "It’s wasting a lot of energy but seems to ignore that."
"Well, that’s the downside of being highly intelligent, I guess," Brand whispered.
Unlike normal demon worms, Raml-d’ah displayed emotions and thoughts.
’Then let’s further infuriate it.’
"By the way, you’re too distracting. Mind giving me some space?" Brand gestured to Seraphine to get off his back.
Although she was somewhat transparent, she was still visible to Brand.
"Hmmph!" She flew off and hovered around Brand with the four beetles.
The beetles circled closely, without independent will. Brand had preset them to follow only his movement.
’How to make use of the beetles?’
He stayed on the ground, patiently waiting for the mutated worm to initiate its attack. He closed his eyes and peered at himself and his surroundings through the beetles.
He felt a small vibration under his foot and leapt upward. Raml-d’ah appeared, gnawing with its flower-like maw while extending it to grab Brand.
Brand used his enhanced sense of vibrations and the beetles’ sensitive motion sight to dodge the attack. He dodged just before it reached him and pierced its maw in a counterattack.
"Good choice to attack the maw first," Seraphine giggled.
The timing for such an attack had to be perfect, and Brand could only achieve this thanks to the synchronization effect of his skills.
After the attack, Brand chased the demon worm and stabbed relentlessly. He had already activated Might and Haste before lunging at it earlier.
He needed to dish out as much damage as possible before the skills wore off.
Raml-d’ah used lightning attacks on Brand, which he couldn’t dodge. The attack was too widespread and fast. Luckily, his Scarab Shell resisted some of the damage.
’Should I use more Stat Points?’
Brand questioned whether it was a good time to spend his saved points.
Meanwhile, the expedition warriors watching the fight were stunned. A humanoid demon was extremely rare and historically referred to as the Devil.
Was the humanoid creature in front a Devil?
Its reaction speed was inhuman, dodging the demon worm’s attack by only a narrow gap.
They exchanged uneasy glances, beginning to question its identity.
While relieved that it fought the mutated demon worm, a growing worry lingered that it might turn against them once the battle was over.
Some warriors quietly started preparing defensive spells, ready in case the humanoid demon decided to kill them instead.
"Brand, your fellow warriors might attack you as well, you know?" Seraphine pointed toward the warriors.
Brand glanced their way but quickly returned his focus to the worm.
"There’s nothing I can do about it. I’m too busy with this damned worm," Brand complained.
The level difference already made the fight difficult. He would be dead if not for the four beetles providing motion vision in all directions and the two beetles underground tracing the worm’s position when it dove.
"How about Ruby? Had she finished preparing her spell?" Brand whispered to Seraphine.
Brand didn’t feel like he could last much longer. His head was spinning from the constant stimuli, switching back and forth between his beetles’ vision.
On the sideline, Karl watched the battle between Raml-d’ah and Brand with an intrigued expression.
He did not participate in the fight, but was simply observing. Suspicion flickered in his eyes. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
’There was a human who could do that, too.’
Karl thought of Brand, who had countered his attack during their sparring session. This creature was displaying the same feat, dodging his lightning-fast strike by barely a hair’s breadth.
